Broadcom STB-chip “outgrew its peers”
March 6, 2014
By Chris Forrester
Eric Brandt, Broadcom’s CFO spoke at the recent Morgan Stanley Technology & Media conference, and the chip company’s recent progress and expectations were discussed by the analysts present.
Brandt said: “Broadband is a good business. Last year was particularly strong on the set-top box side, [which] picked up, outgrew its peers probably overall in broadband by double-digits. So we are continuing to see benefit on geographic expansion, going after a number of the geographies where we really haven’t participated. [We are going] further in Latin America, beginning to in Africa, Eastern Europe, Russia, etc. Couple that with increased content, devices with more tuners, UltraHD, HEVC, a variety of different things. And so what’s happened is broadband has continued to outgrow its market and continues to grow.”
Questioned whether Broadcom might spin off some of its business divisions, Brandt said: “I think in a period of time where an industry is growing at double digits and smartphones are growing at 35 per cent, there was a level of economic flow into the company that allowed us to do certain things that is more challenging to do today. And we all understand that. Probably one of the reasons why everybody talks about consolidation in the industry is because the industry that is going to grow at sort of mid-single digits with a cost structure that’s growing as you sort of move down the process [then making] the right portfolio choices is critical for a business.”